Oyster Bay: 1939.
Price:
$2,000.00
About the item
On his Oyster Bay, Long Island, letterhead. 8vo. Fine.
Item #374347
Theodore Roosevelt III (1887-1944) was the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. He served in the first world war and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1921–1924), Governor of Puerto Rico (1929–1932), and Governor-General of the Philippines (1932–1933). Roosevelt returned to military service in the second world war and on June 6, 1944, became the oldest person and only general to storm the beaches of Normandy with the first wave of troops. When he learned that troops landing at Utah Beach had drifted a mile from their intended landing position, Roosevelt used his seasoned leadership to modify the original plans and kick the invasion off from where they stood. He repeatedly led troops from the beach and over the seawall to where they could safely set up inland. He was able to create order from chaos, and that inspired the troops around him. A month later, Roosevelt died of a heart attack during the Allied push across France. On Sept. 28, 1944, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor.
Six succinct letters of peronal recommendation from Roosevelt for his close friend Francis Kettaneh (1897-1976), Lebanese American businessman, founder of Kettaneh Frères trading company (today the Kettaneh Group). Kettaneh was later a noted collector of books and of art, and a trustee of the Morgan Library. The letters from Roosevelt are all dated 10 June 1939 and are variations on: ‘Francis Kettaneh is the best informed man on the situation in the Near East that I know” and “I don’t give letters unless I really mean what I say. I mean what I say about Francis Kettaneh.’’
Letters to Stanley Field, Jr., John B. McCutcheon, and Albert Lasker in Chicago; Templeton Crocker and Milton Esberg in San Francisco, and Kathleen Norris, in Palo Alto.
With two later letters from his widow Mrs. Eleanor B. Roosevelt, to Mary and Francis Kettaneh (1948, 1951).
